


And Then Something Shifted

by littlelarrywitch



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: 16-Year-Old Harry, 18-Year-Old Louis, Alternate Universe, Angst, Bullying, Childhood Friendship, College, Fake Relationship, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gay, High School AU, Homophobic Slurs, I think that's about it, M/M, Pretend Relationship, School Project, Six-Form, Smut, Social Experiment, United Kingdom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-01
Updated: 2015-09-03
Packaged: 2018-04-14 17:09:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4572774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlelarrywitch/pseuds/littlelarrywitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis and Harry are best friends, always have been since that one time in primary when some kid decided to shove worms down the back of Harry's shirt and Louis shoved some down the kids pants. Ever since then they have been attached to the hip and never separated. So really, it was only logical when Harry asks Louis to help him with a school project. One school project that just so happens to make everyone believe that they're dating.</p><p>Or the one where Harry and Louis pretend to date for a social project and things get a bit complicated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow so this is my second work on here, yaaay! Tbh I have no idea what this story will bring, but I hope you enjoy it! This is going to be my first chaptered one, but I'm hoping it won't be past 15 chapters at THE MOST. I got this idea from a similar project we have to do at my school. 
> 
> WARNING: Lots of homophobic slurs and bullying, could be triggering to some readers. 
> 
> Well, I hope you enjoy! Thanks for reading, Kim xx.

" _No stop, please!" a younger Harry shrieks whilst trying not the cry, because his mummy told_ _him to never show your enemies weakness. But really, it was quite hard when you're about to get live creatures shoved down the back of your new polo for no reason at all._

_"It's either this or you'll have to eat them, fag!" Jeremy, an incredibly large kid for his age, yells back. It's a wonder where he learned such language at the age of seven, but there are older siblings that could be blamed._

_"Please, my mummy just bought me this!" Harry whimpers as Jeremy holds him by the back of the shirt's collar, Harry dirtying his outfit already from being forced onto his knees in front of the swings on the school's playground. He just wanted to enjoy recess and swing on the swings since they were his absolute favorite until Jeremy and his friends came along before he even so much as sat down on one._

_"Oh boo-hoo, is little Hawwy scared of his mummy? Are you gonna cry now?" Jeremy mocks, Harry trying his hardest not to let the tears welled up in his eyes stream down his face, "Don't worry, these little guys will make it even worse!" Jeremy lets out a villainous laugh to that, and at this point Harry just accepts his fate. With his friends cheering him on, Jeremy grabs the fist full of earth worms from his friend Alex's hand and proceeds to shove them down the back of Harry's crisp, white polo shirt. Harry knew this was coming, but nothing compares to actually feeling the slimy, filthy worms tangled together now making their way down the back of his shirt._

_A few tears fall from his face while he falls forward on the dirt and squirms and rolls around, trying desperately to get the worms out with Jeremy, Alex and a few others looking down at him, pointing, and laughing like it's just the funniest thing ever._

_"Hey, what are you guys doing?!" A high pitched voice interrupts._

_"Oh, look, Tomlinson decided to join! Care to put a caterpillar down the fag's shirt?" Jeremy laughs, approaching 'Tomlinson' who Harry sees is a short, but obviously older boy with light brown hair trimmed to a bowl cut and stunningly blue eyes._

_For a second, Harry just about thinks his luck could be getting worse, when Tomlinson just stares at Jeremy and his crew, seemingly contemplating something._

_"Nah, gimme some of those worms though, yeah?" And great, here it comes. Harry just lays there, staring up through his chocolate curls, stomach planted on the ground beneath him, awaiting more worms to be shoved inside his clothing. Not like it would make much of a difference, the worms hardly shifted through his rolling on the ground. Tomlinson looks back briefly, green meeting blue._

_"Alright!" Alex shouts, followed by excited shouts from his classmates. He sticks his hand into the dirt, picking up what he earlier seemed to be a jackpot of earth worms._

_"Go for it mate!" Jeremy insists from beside Harry on the ground who has his eyes clenched shut. And here it is. Harry can hear Tomlinson shift the worms from one palm to another. Footsteps and the dust of dirt coming closer._

_And Jeremy yells. And wait, what? Harry quickly opens his eyes, only to see the Tomlinson kid with his hand shoved down Jeremy's trousers._

_He removes his hand, a smirk on his face. The kids behind him look just as shocked as Harry, mouths almost comically dropped open. And Jeremy, well, he looks like he's about to cry. He's just as shocked too, it seems, with his jaw practically hitting the floor, before he realizes his predicament and starts jumping up and down and then running away with his friends, screaming a promising, "I'll get you, Tomlinson!" Harry is so, so confused. But really more than anything he's in awe. Especially when his blue-eyed savior crouches down next to him and offers him a hand to help him up, which Harry gratefully accepts._

_When he's at full hight, he realizes he's quite a bit shorter than the older lad, but nonetheless looks up to admire the kind face that's now giving him a crinkle-eyed smile, and saying "my name is Louis, what's yours?"_

***

**L**

"Lou, why does school hate me."

"It doesn't hate you Haz, you just hate school, as do I," Louis says with a firm hand placed on Harry's shoulder, leading him through the halls to his next class which happens to be on the opposite side of campus from Louis' next class, but he can't _not_ walk Harry.

The thing is, Louis always, _always_ walks Harry to his classes. It's sort of this habitual thing that stemmed from when they first met. After their first encounter, Louis has stuck by his best mate's side as much as possible. And yeah, Louis got bullied sometimes too, but not nearly as bad as Harry and he always stood up for himself. Plus, he was older so the kids in Harry's year never picked on him. 

After meeting Harry, they clicked instantly. From then on out they have been constantly together and practically attached by the hip. Of course, if it was up to Louis, he would have met Harry much earlier, so that he could have protected him from the very beginning.

You see, it all started when Harry was in year 1 and was five. He was new to Doncaster, and didn't really enjoy the idea of going to a new school. But his mum insisted, and she just looked so happy when she dressed her little boy up for his first day in a light pink polo and khaki pants, and Harry was happy because his mummy was, and he also loved pink. However, the other boys at his new school did not. And they also didn't like his long curly locks which supposedly made him look too girly with the polo. 

From Louis' understanding, it's a really scarring moment for Harry, seeing that he won't even tell his best friend what happened that day, but he put two and two together after learning that Harry won't let anyone cut his hair except Louis or his mum. There is also the pictures that litter the walls of his home with pictures of a five-year-old Harry with a nearly balded head.

Of course, many things have changed since then. Today, Harry doesn't get bullied at all. In fact, he could even be called popular since on that first day of college a year ago when he walked in and nearly no one recognized him with his side-swept fringe, a less chubby face replaced with a nice bone structure, and legs for days that made his new wardrobe look flawless. The only danger Harry could be in is the constant girls throwing themselves at him. Even his old bullies respected him, you could even call them _friends_.

But to Louis, he was still the little geeky little kid who needed his saving, and he would do anything to protect him. 

"Okay then Mr. Gallagher hates me," Harry huffs, "Can you believe I got a D on that paper, a D! He obviously doesn't see that I'm a great writer."

Louis chuckles, which he can't help because despite Harry's status, he's still a slut for good grades. "Don't worry Haz, you'll bring your grade up. I'll even help you next time, alright?" He smiles softly at his best friend, getting an appreciative look in return as they near Harry's math class. 

They stop just outside of Harry's class, and the bell is about to ring, and Louis is going to be late once again but oh well. "Promise?" Harry asks, and how can Louis say no when his favorite person ever is staring at him like he just said he was some angel who came to save him (much like when they first met he might add).

"Of course Harold, now get your bum in there or you're going to be late!" With that he taps Harry's rear end and the younger boy yelps in surprise before giving Louis another quick smile and rushing into class. 

The bell rings just as Louis turns around to walk back across campus, and...yeah his teachers don't like him very much. 

***

"So you mean to tell me that you think Superman is better than Batman?!" 

"Well, yeah he's like a classic mate!"

"And Batman isn't?!"

Louis sets his lunch his lunch on the table, sliding down so Harry can sit next to him. "What's going on lads?" He asks before digging into his pizza. 

"Niall is trying to say that Batman isn't the greatest superhero!" Liam complains, bottom lip pouted out and big puppy eyes shining with hurt.

"Mate, Superman has 'super' in his name, how great can you get?" Niall rolls his eyes from beside Louis, obviously not as affected by the debate as Liam, but he always likes a little row. 

"Who car-"

"It's obviously Spiderman who's the best," Louis interrupts, cutting Harry off who just rolls his eyes at his best mate making his other two give him a look of terror, complete with dramatic mouth dropping and everything. 

"How-" Liam says, lost of words when Niall cuts in, "Even I can say no to that!" 

"Like Harry was just about to say, who cares," a mellow voice says from behind a sketch book next to Liam. And, oh yeah Zayn is there too. 

Zayn is definitely the quiet, mysterious one of the group, just kind of lingering while his four mates make a ruckus. But he does enjoy joining in of course, when he isn't sketching pictures of his crush, Perrie. Which, creepy. 

"Z, we don't say that whenever you rant about Perrie's eyes or hair, or everything else you deem worthy enough of sharing." Yeah, Louis is a shit. 

Zayn blushes from behind his book, pretending that he wasn't just called out. "Well you bother all of us just the same when you talk about Eleanor." 

Okay, so Louis might have some girlfriend dating type thing with Eleanor, but he doesn't think much of it. Actually, he hardly sees her, if they're not fucking in his bed, let alone talks about her.

Before he can say as such, Harry does it for him. "You know he doesn't, it's okay mate we all have had our fair share of crushes." 

Zayn smiles softly, cheeks still a faint pink. 

Niall burps. 

"Well I don't know about you, but all this girl talk is making me want to get with one, huh Lime?" Liam just rolls his eyes. It seems to be something they do a lot towards each other. 

"Well, _Neil_ , you're not exactly the relationship type seeing as you haven't even held a girls hand in five years." Liam chuckles, followed by the rest of the boys.

"Ugh, when you cunts decide to stop laughing at me, that's not what I meant. I _meant_ , that we should go to a party." He raises his blonde eyebrows suggestively.

"No, absolutely not," Zayn mumbles.

"What!" Niall says exasperately, "Z you never go to parties, get out some, will ya? Plus Perrie will be there and all of us boys!"

"Uh, haven't agreed yet," Liam tries to say, but Niall shushes him quickly with a hand to his lips. 

Liam spits out Nialls hand from his lips, "Ew mate I don't know where those hands have been!"

"Probably just jacking off in the restroom," Louis snorts and Harry lets out a loud beautiful laugh that everyone else just ignores, as well as Louis' comment. Well, this is why they're the closest out of the group. It's like they're constantly in their own little bubble. 

"Did you say Perrie?" Zayn asks timidly. Ugh, this kid needs to get it together and ask her out already, honestly. 

"Mhhhhm," Niall replies with a smirk on his face, seeing that he's captured his target. 

"Ugh, will there be lots of alcohol and perhaps weed? I don't think I can get through a night of a bunch of thirteen-year-olds without it," Louis whines and Harry jabs him in the side. 

"Hey! There will probably only be six-formers there, you wanker, we're all in year 12 and we're still going- if I decide to, that is"

Louis flips his hair gently with two fingers sassily, "Still not year 13 like me." Harry sighs. "Who's throwing the party?" 

"Stanley Lucas, same year as you," Niall offers, "I guarantee you thirteen-year-olds won't be crashing this party."

"That's what you said before Calvin's-" 

"So are you wankers coming or not? We've got to do our boy Zayn a favor and help him out!" Niall insists, and when it comes down to it Louis would do anything for a friend, so that's why he starts nodding. (And if it's also because of the promise of alcohol and sex, well.)

"Alright, Haz, Lime, you in?" Which are probably the two who are the most hesitant of the group, and Louis knows even Niall's Irish charm won't make them go.

"I don't know, I mean I have to study-"

"Me too and this girl has been stalking me recently-"

"C'mon guys! Get out some! We haven't partied in like, a month-"

"That's because school just started," Liam points out. And, annoying.

"That's irrelevant, and the party wont be as memorable if you lads aren't there. Just think about it- body shots, drinking games, hot girls, weed, vodka, what else could you possibly want!" Just saying it out loud is suddenly getting Louis excited, he can't wait to actually _do_ something again. It seems like for months while every one was away for the summer he hasn't seen a single person for decades, much less a party full of people. Louis is practically a social butterfly, he _needs_ to get out and flirt and act obnoxiously. Really, it's what he's meant for. Not to mention it's his last year before uni and he wants to make the most of it.

 "Well a good education for one-"

"Are you quite finished Liam?" Louis huffs, crossing his arms across his chest. Niall is eating his pepperoni off his pizza now, but Louis is too into trying to convince Liam to live a little to notice. 

Liam is just glaring at him now, which means he'll crack soon. He breaks the eye contact after a few short seconds, looking down at his folded hands on top of the table, and Louis knows he's about to give in. 

"Fine, but I'm only going if Harry comes too."

Harry looks up from his phone which was distracting him from the scene folding out in front of him. 

"Huh?" Louis frowns. He's supposed to be listening. But then again, this type of thing happens all the time, and Niall and Zayn are chatting idly in their little corner about details concerning the party. 

"Party, girls, drinks, hell-o!" He waves his arms around wildly, hoping to snap Harry out of it.

"Oh, yeah I guess. Only if Liam goes though," Harry says distractedly. He seems to have forgotten his own resistance to the idea, but hey, works for Louis. 

"Uh, mate, snap out of it, me and Li just had a full on argument about it, where have you been?" He asks exsasperatedly. It's odd for his best friend to be this disconnected, but he doesn't have the energy to look into it at the moment, and he just got _both_ Liam and Harry to go. 

Harry actually looks at Louis this time, and apologetic upturn of his mouth visible, "Sorry Lou, I'm just a little stressed. Maybe a party will help." He smiles full on now, and Louis has just planned out his weekend. 

***

"Harry, Louis!" 

"Fuck it's her again, okay we'll just walk faster and pretend we didn't hear her." 

They both huff and puff through the hallways, because you know, Louis is a great friend and he will not let this little troll try and get Harry's attention. Really, it's pathetic that she chases after the poor boy. If Harry was interested that would be one thing, but he's far from it, he's actually petrified of the little witch. 

Getting farther, her voice is fading out, thank god. 

"I...think...we...lost...her," Louis puffs out, his heart feeling like it's going to pound out of his chest. He should really get back into shape for footie season, but whatever. 

"Thank Go-" 

"Finally I caught up to you! I've been wanting to talk to you for weeks, Harry!" The blonde bounces up towards them, not out of breath one bit, which further proves that she's not human. 

"Uh, hey Taylor," Harry mumbles, trying not to make any eye contact, "You see, we're really in a hurry at the moment so I can't talk right no-"

Taylor waves her hand in Harry's direction, a huge manical smile on her face. "Oh nonsense, we have ten more minutes until the bell rings!" Harry sighs. She continues, "I was just hoping that you will be at the party this Friday? And, Louis of course, you too, Eleanor has been missing you," she winks in Louis' direction. 

Right, Eleanor. He honestly thought the girl got the hint by now that Louis was in no means looking for any type of commitment. Eleanor was a great girl, but Louis hated being tied down, and learned that quickly after his last relationship in secondary school with Hannah went down the shit hole. It wasn't a fun time, especially when he never got to see Harry because Hannah was always suggesting hanging out with him.

"Yeah...well uhm-m," Harry starts to stutter, and Louis can tell that this is his moment to cut in. 

"Look Taylor, as wonderful as that sounds, we actually promised our friend Zayn that we would stick by him throughout the whole night, so." 

"Well that's alright! I'll keep him company too, and I'm sure El would love to as well!" It's blatantly obvious that this girl with do anything and everything to see Harry, which pressed Louis' buttons because she just _couldn't_ quit. It had been going on ever since the first day and has yet to stop. 

Taylor's eyes seemed to be sparkling with joy, and Louis really wanted to grab his best mate's hand and run away but before he could decide whether that was a complete arsehole move or not, she turned to leave herself.

"Bye Harry! See- Oh and Lou! See you Friday!"

Suddenly Louis really wishes he never begged Harry and Liam to go to this party. 


	2. Two.

**H**

There's a thing about parties that Harry doesn't like. Actually, there's multiple things. 

1\. The amount of girls that approach him only to have sex 

2\. The annoying drunk people getting too handsy with him as they walk past 

3\. Losing his group 

The first two, sure, Harry can deal with. But the most hated thing on that list is when he somehow gets separated from his friends. It happens every time, they go to get a drink or go to dance, and he loses them for the rest of the night. 

He probably wouldn't be so cranky if this also didn't mean he loses Louis a lot.

Louis is usually attached to his hip constantly, but with a few drinks in his system he turns into this horny drunk. There's been multiple times that Harry has caught him hanging or grinding on people, sometimes it's himself before Louis catches his mistake a runs off to find some girl instead. It's slightly disturbing how fast Louis runs off actually. Lately, however he hardly gets a glimpse of his best mate during a party, in which he's most likely dancing with a girl, or getting ready to hook up with her. 

Majority of the time it's Eleanor. 

Harry's not dumb, he knows what goes on between the two of them. And even if he didn't have the slightest clue, he would when Louis told him later. The two were always truthful, told each other absolutely everything. So it's no secret that Louis is using Eleanor because she's easy. 

Yeah, he feels bad for her. And he probably should be mad at his best friend for doing that to a girl who is obviously head over heels for him but he can't, because he does the same thing.

Yeah, he slept with Taylor.

But it was _one time_ over the summer and now she clings to him like a koala to a branch. Seriously, the girl practically stalks him. 

He sighs, putting on his usual black tee and black trousers. Looking in the mirror, he adjusts his fringe quickly, noting that he needs to get a haircut soon. 

He doesn't take long, it really takes the boy only ten minutes to look presentable enough. Luckily he never has to do anything drastic to look how he always does. Somehow, with little work, he never has trouble with girls. 

Spritzing his cologne on quickly, he walks downstairs to where he knows Louis will probably already be, since he lets himself in unannounced all the time, especially when they have plans. Other times he just comes over because he's bored, which is almost every day. 

He sees him lounging comfortably on his couch, chatting with his mum, Anne while he waits. 

"Ah speak of the devil, there you are!" Louis says when he sees Harry coming down the stairs. He quickly jumps up from his position on the couch, dressed in a white vest and black trousers like Harry's, simple checkered vans on his feet. 

Harry grabs his all black high top converse from the entrance way, giving a questioning look at his mum. 

"Oh I was just telling Lou to make sure you two are safe, I know you always are but a mum can't help but worry," Anne explains, getting up as well and giving her boy a hug. 

Harry grunts in his mum's tight embrace, "Mum we'll be fine." 

"I'll make sure little Haz here doesn't get into too much trouble," Louis interrupts, ruffling Harry's hair, which he _just_ fixed, thank you. 

"Alright, alright, you boys have fun-" and they're already moving towards the front door. 

"Stay out of trouble!" She calls as Harry shuts the door. 

***

The party is well, loud, loud, and...loud.

There's people everywhere, many littering the lawn with not only trash but with their bodies. The party started about an hour ago, so Harry isn't really all that surprised. He is surprised though, when Niall tackles him from behind.

"Jesus, mate, get off the poor guy! You know he has back issues." Always Louis to the rescue. 

Niall whines but jumps off of Harry anyways mumbling something about "lovers" that Harry decided to ignore. 

This night would be a long one, Harry could already tell just by the amount of girls that decided to drag them into the house once Zayn and Liam approach seconds later. Don't get him wrong, Harry loves all sorts of attention since he's kind of a quiet guy. You would expect that no one would try to make an attempt at a conversatiom with him, but his good looks wins him all of the ladies, much to the other guys' annoyance. The footie team gets a lot of attention too, but there's just something about Harry Styles. After a while though, it gets to be a tad annoying when Harry doesn't really want to be in a busy atmosphere. He likes to write and listen to music, be his introverted self sometimes. Too much social interaction tires him out. The only person he can stand to be around for multiple days is Louis, and Harry isn't quite sure why, seeing that Louis is the most energetic person he knows, but he assumes it's because he's known the lad for many years and he's used to him. 

Right now, Louis is chatting with the girls that brought them into the house, and Harry is supposed to be doing that too, but the girl who is talking his ear off is really just giving him a headache, so he excuses himself to go get a drink. Eyeing the blonde's drink, he assumes she doesn't need one, and well, she was annoying anyway. 

Niall, Liam, and Zayn are nowhere to be found and he guesses they escaped with some of the group's girls to smoke or something. 

Truth is, tonight is just not the night. He doesn't feel up to partying, and he's kind of scared that Taylor is going to hunt him down soon. He could have sex with her, seeing that he hasn't gotten laid recently, but that will just make her want him even more than she already does, and he's not looking to be with her. 

So he does what anyone would do when they just want to let themselves have a good time. 

He drinks.

***

Hours later, and Harry has no idea why he's doing this, but he was horny so, yeah. He's inside of Taylor. 

Shes moaning but he's really just trying to chase his own orgasm, as selfish as that may seem. But he just saw Louis take Eleanor into the other room, and he can hear that bed banging against the wall, so it's only fair that Harry does the same thing, it makes sense. Not to mention he had a ridiculous hard on right as Taylor found him downing multiple shots in the kitchen. He has a feeling that when this is over he's going to have to drink some more, but he lets himself get into it enough to finally release into the condom.

When they're done and cleaned up, he swears Taylor slips something into his pocket, but he's too out of it and too high on his post orgasm that he doesn't let himself think too much on it. He makes it out of the room before her, thankfully, because her hanging off his arm would just irritate him and he's really drunk and wants to be even more drunk by the time this night is over. He thinks he can hear the other bedroom door opening, but he's sort of mad at Louis for once again putting girls first, so he heads back to the kitchen. 

***

**L**

Louis has no idea what he's doing, all he knows is he's winning at beer pong and his friends are cheering him on. Harry showed up absolutely plastered about an hour ago with fucked up hair and his shirt on backwards, and now they're defeating every set of challengers to come their way. He assumes it's been Harry that has been doing so well, but then again his coordination can't be too good since he reeks of vodka. 

"Tommo, Tommo, Tommo," the crowd cheers, just as he somehow gets the ball in a cup, and wow when did he even pick that up? 

"I think this game is about done, guys, we have our winners for sure," Liam voices, and has there always been two of him? 

From his peripheral he can see Harry drunkenly cheering, so he joins in and pulls his best friend in for a hug. 

Ah his best friend. He closes his eyes In the hug, still holding on tight. They're rocking back and forth now, and people have started to walk away to go do other drinking games, but why would he let go? Harry is warm, and even thoigh he smells like alcohol, he still smells good which kind of centers him and makes him feel dizzy all at once.

"Such curly locks, Harold, love them, love you," he hums, running his fingers through Harry's curls.

Harry laughs. Such a cute little dopey laugh.

"I love you moooore, Louehh." 

"No you dooon't, I love you the mostest!" He argues, because hello, he does. 

"Nuh uhhh, if you loved me you wouldn't have ignored me for those girlss," Harry whines into his neck. Louis can feel hot breaths on his skin, and the party is still going on all around them but it doesn't seem to really matter. 

"Hazzy you're better than any girl, love you so muuuch like I wanna kiss your lil dimply cheeks," he confesses, and that seems to do the trick, Harry letting out a beautiful laugh and raising his head to look Louis in the eyes, their arms still firmly around each other's waists. 

"Do it and maybe I'll believe you." And wow, okay that seems easy enough. So he does. 

Only he doesn't kiss his cheek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it's taken me so long to update! College has me working hard, and the fandom is all over the place right now so I didn't have much motivation to write this story, but I'm back! Hope you like this chapter. It's shorter than the last, but every chapter after the first are supposed to be. I'll be updating soon!   
> Xx. Kim

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you like what's written so far! There is so much more left to come. I'm trying to progress not too fast, so please be patient, the best parts will be coming soon! Xx. Kim


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